News Release-- January 12, 2001

E-BUSINESS TOP PRIORITY FOR AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVES, CSC SURVEY SAYS

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 12 -- E-business dominates the top five technology issues facing leading technology executives in New Zealand and Australia, according to a survey by Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC).

According to the company's 13th Annual Critical Issues of Information Systems (IS) Management Study, technology executives in Australia and New Zealand are chiefly concerned with strategic and technical issues related to e-business.

"Organisations in Australia and New Zealand are keen to invest resources in e-business, perceiving it as a key efficiency and business enabler," said George Bell, managing director of CSC's operations in Australia and New Zealand. "The Internet is a well-received technology as it reduces the barriers to entering global markets -- barriers that have been imposed by this region’s otherwise geographic isolation."

The top five information technology issues for Australia and New Zealand were clearly focused on e-business. Sixty four percent of technology executives rated connecting to customers, suppliers and/or partners electronically as their top priority, while 60 percent cited the need for developing an e-business strategy as their second most critical issue. Rounding out the top five issues, in order of priority, were aligning IS and corporate goals; optimising organisational effectiveness; and integrating systems with the Internet. In previous surveys, connecting to customers electronically ranked third place in
1999 and eighth place in 1998. Developing an e-business strategy held the fourth position in the 1999 survey and the lowest position in 1998.

"These results clearly depict Australia and New Zealand’s rapid progression towards an e-enabled economy," stated Bell.

Other findings of the CSC survey revealed that 77 percent of Australian and New Zealand executives are looking to make a significant investment of time and/or resources in Internet technologies, 72 percent in e-commerce, 52 percent in security and 50 percent in knowledge management (KM).

Knowledge management has emerged as a growth area in this region, according to Bell.

"Australia and New Zealand clearly recognise the need for effective and innovative solutions to guide their organisations’ use of corporate knowledge which, in turn, will allow for faster and more informed management decisions," said Bell.

Although the region is keen to develop, adopt and leverage e-business solutions and technologies, there is still a long way to go before the “e” vision is fully implemented and operational. About 49 percent of Australian and New Zealand respondents have an
e-business strategy and 76 percent of these were focused on external relationships with the objective of engaging their customers and/or suppliers. Sixty eight percent of respondent Web sites currently operate at an “information-only” level. Sixteen percent operate interactively and just over 10 percent operate at the transaction level where orders and sales are executed. According to the survey, however, this is about to change significantly as Australian and New Zealand executives plan to leverage Internet technologies to increase their level of electronic transactions by a huge 90 percent over the next year.

"Overall, the outlook is optimistic," Bell pointed out. "Australia and New Zealand are realising the valuable role information technology plays as a critical enabler of the innovations that will be required to increase business efficiencies and customer connectedness."

CSC has queried IT executives on critical technology issues since 1988. The 822 respondents to this year's survey include chief information officers and vice presidents and directors of technology departments representing organisations in more than 18 different areas such as financial services, healthcare, consumer goods and government. Of the total respondents, 26 percent represent North American organisations, 27 percent were from European companies, 15 percent were from Australia and New Zealand organisations and 32 percent represented companies from Asia.

CSC's Annual Critical Issues of Information Systems Management Study is available online at www.csc.com/survey or on a CD-ROM. For a copy, email cscitsurvey@csc.com.

Computer Sciences Corporation, one of the world’s leading consulting and information technology services firms, helps clients in industry and government achieve strategic and operational results through the use of technology. The company’s success is based on its culture of working collaboratively with clients to develop innovative technology strategies and solutions that address specific business challenges.

Having guided clients through every major wave of change in information technology since 1959, CSC combines the newest technologies with its capabilities in consulting, systems design and integration, IT and business process outsourcing, applications software, and Web and application hosting to meet the individual needs of global corporations and organizations. With more than 61,000 employees in locations worldwide, CSC had revenues of $9.9 billion for the twelve months ended September 29, 2000. It is headquartered in El Segundo, California. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.csc.com.